Don’t ask me what the hat is about. Or the picture as a whole .. really dropped the ball on that one. Kids flurrying about, asking a zillion questions at once .. mind not even remotely on the job. That’ll learn me for trying to pretend to draw.

As part of the Tech Evangelist job, I’ve moved the "redesign" of Pimp My Clarion into a separate project, new URL and all that (the URL hasn’t been set in stone yet).

My apologies to all those who have been offended by the use of ‘Pimp’ in the title. And in my language. I’m remedying the title with the new site, and I’ll do my best to clear it out of my vocabulary. Need to find another word .. ‘Bling Bling’? Heh heh.

There has been some renewed newsgroup action on my post from a few days ago, subject line: ‘[Pimp My Clarion] All Hail Clarion’. It’s good to see people sharing their thoughts and concerns. It’s far more important we talk these things through in a private or public arena with clarity, diligence and .. ‘compassion’ might be too strong a word, but something like that. Not jumping around waving a fire brand.

THANKYOU to everyone who I’ve conversed with over the last few days. Without exception I’ve gained more understanding with each conversation. Each email.

There are a lot of plans for the immediate future. I hope that the community not only benefits, but truly succeeds. Not just because of what I do, but because of what people will see _can_ be done, and that sparks them into further action.

That’s a very generic paragraph .. but I can’t be more specific at the moment. Apologies.

I’ve taken the role as Tech Evangelist for Clarion, and let me tell you .. it took me less than a week for the enormity, the massive jugganaut-y immense and powerful enormity, of what lies before a Clarion Tech Evangelist to sink in.

It’s a big job.

But so far, despite many ups and downs already (hey, i’m an emotional guy, what can i say) .. it’s great.

Most people have offered immediate congratulations, despite whatever they might be thinking. This is good. It means there are people who wish the community to grow, despite what realities they might see before us.

Some folk have chosen their words slowly, wanting to neither leap upon this with total abandonment or shoot it down in flames .. with a flamethrower. (Because why would anything else that shoots use flames, always wondered that .. heh heh)

It’s a tricky situation. On the one hand, you have my obvious enthusiasm and spark for craziness. This does count for something. But it’s not much, especially when weighed against the might of what lies before an attempt to bring more global success to Clarion.

I have the support of many very cool people. People with a lot of brains and capabilities and dedication to the Clarion Community. This is vital.

But it’s not enough to make things work. Enthusiasm. Craziness. Support. These are all elements of what will be success, but they do not equal that success.

What will determine success is, as always, time. You will have to wait and see if I am successful in the Tech Evangelist role. I have put a lot of thought into the role. I have put a lot of time talking to people, fleshing out ideas. But there’s so much more. Just over the weekend my head was floundering with the enormity of what is before me. It’s huge. But that’s not stopping me, in fact, it spurs me on.

If there was one thing I need to get across at the beginning, it’s this:

CONTACT ME

That’s what I really want. To have conversation with people. To respond to criticisms in conversation one on one. To address concerns. To bring excitement. To show vision and purpose. In Conversation. With you.

It has long been my desire (and for regular readers this is not a new piece of information) that Clarion would take it’s rightful place in the software development community alongside the major players.

With this in mind, Soft Velocity and I are embarking on a new (ad)venture. I will be taking on the role of Tech Evangelist for Clarion.

[EDIT, 19/01/2008]

I need to clarify.

The Tech Evangelist role can be summarised as:

1. Mediate between the Community and Soft Velocity, voicing concerns and delivering purpose. This will bring strength to the community.

2. Promote Clarion to the wider development community, through a variety of means. This will bring growth to the community.

There is a huge opportunity for the strengthening and growth of our community. I’m sure we all look forward to this happening.

So here’s to a future where Clarion rules supreme across the universe. All hail Clarion!

Got some nice work done on the Tafres site (local at the moment), didn’t get enough to put it live, hopefully tomorrow night.

Almost got a digital certificate installed, finally, so i can fire up SafeUpdate properly.

Had an intense morning at work, squashing bugs hand-in-hand with a very tenacious (good) tester.

Got absolutely POWNED by my eldest playing Bomb Battles in Mario Kart, Double Dash. He’s just getting better and better. Can’t wait for the day he’s old enough to start playing some rpgs and wotnot with me.

Thought about the next Jaymoe build, but got scared because it’s not coming together like I want it. Need to simplify. Break stuff down.

Did some cool work on branding Tafres. The two (Server and Client) icons are now very nicely branded. Also, got one of those favicon.gif’s for the website. Should be cool.

Another hour on the exercise bike. Really started to hurt towards the end. My posterior was hurting much.

Haven’t managed to play any games, but .. now .. thinking .. i’m off :).